more events on January 12
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2010
An earthquake in Haiti kills an estimated 316,000 people.
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1998
Nineteen European nations agree to prohibit human cloning.
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1991
The U.S. Congress gives the green light to military action against Iraq in the Persian Gulf Crisis.
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1982
Peking protests the sale of U.S. planes to Taiwan.
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1975
The Khmer Rouge launches its newest assault in its five-year war in Phnom Penh. The war in Cambodia would go on until the spring of 1975.
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1973
Yassar Arafat is re-elected as head of the Palestinian Liberation Organization.
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1968
Heather Mills, model, charity campaigner; continued modeling with a prosthetic limb after a leg amputation due to a traffic accident and founded Heather Mills Health Trust to assist amputees; married to former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney (2003–2008).
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1962
The United States resumes aid to the Laotian regime.
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1954
Howard Stern, radio personality, author, TV show host; noted as a “shock jock” for his controversial comments on air.
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1952
The Viet Minh cut the supply lines to the French forces in Hoa Binh, Vietnam.
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1951
Rush Limbaugh, conservative radio talk show host, political commentator and author; a leading voice in the US neo-conservative movement.
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Kirstie Alley, actress; won Emmy and Golden Globe as the leading actress in the TV series Cheers.
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1949
Michael W. Vannier, radiologist; played important role in advancing three-dimensional imaging and surgical planning.
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1946
Cynthia Robinson, musician, vocalist with the psychedelic soul/funk band Sly and the Family Stone.
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1943
Soviet forces raise the siege of Leningrad.
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1940
Soviet bombers raid cities in Finland.
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1938
Qazi Hussain Ahmad, former Emir of Jamaat-e-Islami, right-wing party in Pakistan; vocal critic of US counterterrorism policy.
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Austria recognizes the Franco government in Spain.
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1932
Oliver Wendell Holmes retires from the Supreme Court at age 90.
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1927
U.S. Secretary of State Kellogg claims that Mexican rebel Plutarco Calles is aiding communist plot in Nicaragua.
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1926
Ray Price, singer; leader in the “Nashville sound” movement that introduced lush arrangements into country music recording (“The Same Old Me,” “For the Good Times”).
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U.S. coal talks break down, leaving both sides bitter as the strike drags on into its fifth month.
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1923
Ira Hays, one of the US Marines photographed in the iconic image of raising a flag on Mt. Suribachi, Iwo Jima; member of the Pima tribe; portrayed himself in the movie Sands of Iwo Jima.
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1916
P.W. Botha, first State President of South Africa (1984-89).
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1915
The U.S. Congress establishes Rocky Mountain National Park.
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1913
Kiel and Wilhelmshaven become submarine bases in Germany.
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1908
A wireless message is sent long-distance for the first time from the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
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1907
Sergi Korolev, engineer, lead rocket engineer and spacecraft designer for the Soviet Union during the 1950s and ’60s; often called the “father of practical astronautics”.
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1905
Tex Ritter, singer, actor (“Have I Told You Lately that I Love You?”).
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1903
Igor Kurchatov, Russian physicist, known as the “father of the Soviet atomic bomb.”
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1893
Hermann Goering, Nazi leader, commander of the Luftwaffe.
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1879
The British-Zulu War begins. British troops — under Lieutenant General Frederic Augustus — invade Zululand from the southern African republic of Natal.
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1876
Jack London, American writer (The Call of the Wild).
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1872
Russian Grand Duke Alexis goes on a gala buffalo hunting expedition with Gen. Phil Sheridan and Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer.
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1737
John Hancock, first signer of the Declaration of Independence.
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1588
John Winthrop, the first governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony.